Residents of the Ayetoro coastal community in the Ilaje area of Ondo State have pleaded with the state and the Federal governments to save the committee from extinction owing to the frequent incursion of the Atlantic Ocean, which has almost washed the community away.
It was learnt that the ocean surge has destroyed property worth millions of naira as well as rendering many people homeless.
An environmentalist, Mr Kolade Omoyeni, who issued a statement on Sunday on behalf of the residents of the community, called for immediate intervention of the government at all levels and other stakeholders, to save the community from being washed off by the ocean.
Omoyeni, who expressed fear that the erstwhile socialist community might be washed away following the incessant ocean inrush if government at all levels and other relevant authorities delayed in rescuing the community, pointed it out that the sea had destroyed the architectural and economic buoyancy of the community, due to oil exploration activities of oil companies in the adjoining communities.
He said, “The oil companies carry out exploration in the communities surrounding Aiyetoro without acceding to international standard practice.
“They carry out their exploration activities without recourse to global environmental protection laws. This is the same inhuman attitude of the multinational companies in the whole of the Niger Delta.
“Black scoots are threatening the existence of most oil host towns from Bayelsa to Ondo State while the Petroleum Industrial Act cares very little (even in theory) about the continuous reckless damaging of the riverine areas and lands.
“The economy of the host communities in Niger Delta region is lamed by the crude activities of the oil companies.”
He also called on the intervention agencies – the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission and the Niger Delta Development Commission to save Aiyetoro community from being sunk by incessant ocean surges by ensuring that all abandoned intervention projects were awarded in the coastal community were completed.
The environmental expert warned that if the community was allowed to be washed away by the ocean, several other riverine communities in the Ilaje Local Government Area would suffer the same fate.